Strong winds wreak havoc around Plainview

Semis connected to the canopy of the AllStar Fuel gas pumps hold the canopy steady Thursday morning as crews worked to fix damage caused by the Wednesday’s strong wind.

Semis connected to the canopy of the AllStar Fuel gas pumps hold the canopy steady Thursday morning as crews worked to fix damage caused by the Wednesday’s strong wind.

Photo: Ellysa Harris/Plainview Herald

Photo: Ellysa Harris/Plainview Herald

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Semis connected to the canopy of the AllStar Fuel gas pumps hold the canopy steady Thursday morning as crews worked to fix damage caused by the Wednesday’s strong wind.

Semis connected to the canopy of the AllStar Fuel gas pumps hold the canopy steady Thursday morning as crews worked to fix damage caused by the Wednesday’s strong wind.

Photo: Ellysa Harris/Plainview Herald

Strong winds wreak havoc around Plainview

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Strong winds wreaked havoc around the region on Wednesday blowing down fences, flipping signs, scattering roof shingles, knocking down trees and lifting a canopy off a local gas station.

Officials with the National Weather Service said Thursday that Wednesday winds reached as high as 64 miles per hour and 66 mph in some parts of Hale County.

Though it's stood through strong winds before, the force just got to be too much for the Allstar Fuel self-serve station at the southwest corner of Fifth and Amarillo Streets, according to Allstar Fuel President Gary Garrison.

"That's the first for us that we had to tie a canopy down," he said.

The bases of the posts holding up the canopy (which are made of heavy 12-inch tubular iron steel) started cracking, he said. So the company utilized some semis to help temporarily hold it in place while bringing in a welding company to fix the damage.

The station has been standing since the mid-1970s, Garrison said. This is the first time anything like this has happened – and he's thankful the situation wasn't worse.

That was just one of the many wind-related calls received by the Plainview Police Department's dispatchers Wednesday.

Plainview Police Chief Ken Coughlin said there were a couple of calls about downed power lines, airborne trampolines and fences blown over in addition to the canopy at the fuel station. There were no injuries reported anywhere.

Tim Crosswhite, director of public works for the city of Plainview, said department heads assessed damages around town and the only major damages reported were a power line down Yonkers Street between 17th and 18th Streets and the fuel station.

Landfill crews also spent part of the morning making rounds picking up trees that had been blown into alleys and other big debris, he said.

It seems Xcel Energy received the bulk of wind-related complaints Wednesday.

Wes Reeves, media relations spokesman for Xcel Energy, reported Thursday morning that there were 500 personnel split into groups spread throughout the region working their way through the 2,580 reported job sites.

"The high number of jobs points to the fact that damage is widespread," his email reads. "Almost a thousand of these jobs are individual service jobs, meaning service personnel are going to house to house to restore electricity in many cases."

The company reported that there were 136,000 customers affected – a record-setting number for any outage event in the regional system.

"As we gather more information on the extent of the damage, we will be able to provide better estimates as to when all power will be restored," the email reads. "Some customers who sustained property damage will need to have electricians repair their service connections and have the work inspected by local code enforcement, if applicable, before we can restore service."

Customers are urged to look out for and report downed lines and to assume they're energized. To make a report, call 1(800)895-1999. Those who need to can report new outages to that same phone number.

Customers also have the option to receive update notifications via email, text or voicemails. Those interested can sign up at www.xcelenergy.com.